The present invention relates to an improvement in centrifugal cleaners or separators and, more particularly, to a centrifugal cleaner and a centrifugal cleaner assembly which is uniquely compact and adaptable to a wide variety of applications.
Hydrocyclone cleaners, for example, of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,809,567, are used in many applications to separate and classify the contents of a slurry into an accepts stream and a rejects stream so that the accepts stream may be eventually utilized in a particular process and the rejects stream either further processed to recover acceptable material or disposed of. Such applications include food processing, chemical processing, metal working, mining and drilling, sewage and waste treatment, water pollution control, and pulp and papermaking. While the field of art relating to slurry separation and classification is based on concepts which are relatively simple and is at a highly-advanced state, many problems have been encountered in developing physical systems to carry out these basic concepts in an economical and efficient manner.
One particular problem has been in the physical clustering of a plurality of individual hydrocyclone cleaners into a compact cleaner assembly. Hydrocyclones may be disposed vertically, horizontally or even radially and still accomplish their function in an efficient manner. However, elaborate and sometimes complex piping and connecting ducts are necessary to interconnect the individual hydrocyclone cleaners of the assembly to the slurry supply, the accepts tank and the rejects tank associated with the cleaner assembly. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,019,980 and 4,148,721 show multiple hydrocyclone cleaners assembled in two prior art arrangements. A normal installation of such cleaners entails a substantial amount of plumbing and hardware and the availability of a considerable amount of space. Prior art hydrocyclone arrangements often do not lend themselves to easy installation, maintenance or observation of the cleaning operations. Therefore, there is a need to provide a hydrocyclone cleaner assembly in a compact form.